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The theatre of Revolt … Manjul Bhardwaj

From its origin street theatre is the theatre
of revolt. When establishment is not
listening to you and no option left then you come to the street and demand for
your rights or protest against injustice. So by nature street theatre is a
theatre of protest. It is the voice of voiceless. Hence it`s nature is
political. Street theatre is a political theatre; it has an in built revolt
against system .So the practitioners of street theatre must be very clear about
the ideology and purpose of street theatre. Street theatre practitioners should
not mix street theatre with folk theatre or theatre of celebration as it is
being written in many news articles and also on Wikipedia.

Street theatre is a modern word, referring to the theatre performed on
streets, grounds to create consciousness about the contemporary political, social
and economic situation to provide political, social and economic analyses of the contemporary
situations and provide a direction to the consciousness of the viewers
to raise the voice of victim.

This form of theatre is being
discovered and practiced by the workers after the industrial revolution in
Europe for their demands .The workers used their real pain, sufferings,
marginalization and use theatre form on street and it has a huge impact on the
system and the demands of the workers fulfilled.

In India the street theatre has a
mixed history of being performed by different groups. Those groups with
political affiliation have used this weapon very effectively and rest has done
more harm to this challenging art form by mixing different folk forms. These
performers were not very clear about the purpose of folk and street theatre and
thus confused themselves and limited this form of revolt to awareness.

During the strong era of mill
workers movement across India street theatre movement was very strong and kept
the capitalist forces at bay.Like Indian Peoples Theatre Association (IPTA) for a long time
has used to this form of theatre very effectively, Gurusharan Singh , Badal
sarcar and then CPM cadre Safdar Hasmi
has laid his life for his commitment to this theatre of Revolt. These names are
repeatedly mentioned in any article of street theatre because of their
commitment and long struggle for people`s cause and use of street theatre to
fight the exploitative dominant forces. There are countless street theatre
performers and groups who occasionally perform street play on very critical
issues in the remote villages of India but their efforts are for a short period
and their groups don’t have a long term vision.

But after the collapse of organized workers and peasant movement and rise
of middle class in India street theatre movement has also become scattered and
sporadic. Some groups occasionally performs on some issues of national
importance and disappear as soon as the issue fades out from the limelight thus
lacks in vision, consistency and commitment towards street theatre.

From 1992
Experimental Theatre Foundation (ETF) has used effectively street theatre to
its spirit. When Babari mosque was demolished and the nation face communal
violence. Mumbai also engulfed in communal violence and hatred, during this
challenging time ETF performed “Door se kisi ne Aawaaz di” among the riot
effected and affected areas to bring peace and harmony. Similarly ETF`s another play Mera Bachpan is the voice of 20 crore or more Indian child
laborershas been performed more than
12000 times across India to liberate and restore the childhood of these
children .Street
theatre has given the children self-confidence & a sense of self worth. The children were amazed to find the same employer who
beats them at work applauding them for their acting skills. This triggered a
revolt in children`s mind “Children realized that they are not borne to serve
the society as slaves” this world belongs to them too and broke the vicious
circle of exploitation. Till date more than 50 thousand laborers left labor and
joined schools. Street theatre requires a personal commitment and fire in belly
to fight injustice and ETF performers are up to these challenges till date.

Now
a day’s National Federation
of Indian women (CPI) outfit is using street theatre for the gender
egalitarian society to challenge the feudal, patriarchal and neo liberal
mind
set along with many women’s Rights organizations. Domestic workers Union
( Ghar
Kamgar Molkarni Sanghthana ) a union of unorganized domestic workers has
taken
up the corruption in public distribution system (PDS) in Mumbai and
performed a
street play “Rashan Amacha Hakkacha” ( Ration is my right) and exposed
the
nexus of black marketers andprofiteers
. In this experiment street theatre helped these unorganized workers to get
organized and grow in strength and enhanced the belief to fight the mighty
corrupt system.

Today the street
theatre movement in India has gone through the journey of constructive systemic
change to the mode of awareness tool. From visionary groups to seasonal performing
groups, from committed performers to opportunistic performers, from passion to
fashion where a group of none committed youth in khadi kutra and jeans perform
for their college NSS activity. There is nothing wrong in that but the
performances lack of commitment, clarity, on the issue and performance is time
pass and superficial. Many foreign funded NGOS also use street theatre as an
awareness tool and avoid confrontation with the system which is an escapist
route.

As the neo global
forces are rising in the world, the African continent is dying of hunger, and
multinational companies are taking over control on their minerals and natural
resources, the middle east is on the brink of everyday crisis, the number of
unorganized workers is on the rise, as the largest democracy in the world is
selling all its assets to corporate world and running away from its democratic
commitment to the people, as the poor and rich divide is getting widened every
day , as the control of corporate is on rise ,the workers of world and India
will unite and fight against the capitalistic forces. This is not an old
communist rhetoric any more. Earlier it was mentioned in the articles and books
but today the ugly, inhuman face of neo liberalization is visible in the forms
of mall culture. Where only rich is getting richer and inflation is used as a state
tool and policy to exploit, divide to eliminate poor unorganized workers. When
right wing forces are rising then left will and naturally rise and street
theatre is an apt mass medium in the hands of poor and voiceless to counter the
bluff of corporate media to fight for their rights!